The School of Engineering has welcomed Professor Eann Patterson, as the A A Griffith Chair of Structural Materials and Mechanics.
Professor Patterson joined the School from Michigan State University (MSU), where he was involved in the founding, in 2007, and latterly as Director of the Composite Vehicle Research Center (CVRC). Prior to moving to MSU as Department Chair in 2004, Professor Patterson was Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Sheffield.
He is active in studying and lecturing on engineering pedagogy with an emphasis on gaining and maintaining student engagement, and his research interests are in experimental mechanics with applications in fracture mechanics, biomechanics and aerospace engineering.
Current projects include the use of experiments for quantitative validation of computational structural analyses, the effect of plasticity on fatigue crack growth and the interaction of nanoparticles with cells. He is editor of the Journal of Strain Analysis for Engineering Design and Fatigue and Fracture of Engineering Materials and Structures.
His appointment is supported by a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award. Professor Patterson said: “I am excited about setting up new projects and collaborations at the University.”